Conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh downplayed the video game violence angle while discussing the Virginia Tech tragedy with his radio audience yesterday.

The discussion began when a caller to Limbaugh's program said:

I'll bet my last dollar in my pocket, that this shooter will be found to have been a compulsive video gamer, and when people are living that kind of lifestyle - and college students do this a lot.

Limbaugh, however, nixed that idea at some length in his response and subsequent comments:

Not every video gamer goes out and murders 33 people on the college campus though. There's more to this than that... it may desensitize people, but it doesn't turn everybody into mass murderers...

People have a tough time accepting a relatively simple explanation for something of this scale. But how many people are playing video games out there? How many millions of people play video games, and how many millions of people have guns?

If you start blaming the video games, you may as well demand video game control because it's the same thing when you start trying to blame guns for this. You have here a sick individual, an evil individual who committed a random act. But if you want to start blaming the video games, this guy was this or that, weeeeell, then you've gotta maybe talk about banning them because that's the same tack that's taken with guns.

"Now you’re in a corner, your back to the wall and a 200lbs man in front of you with the barrel of a glock 19 pointed at your head about 6 feet away."

"What would you do when a CRIMINAL (you know, those guys who break the LAW) points a banned gun at you and threatens your life?"

Those examples are just scare-mongering. If a guns pointed at your head like that nothing is going to save you, not even your own armory of every single type of gun in existence. If guns were banned, the chances of said 200lb man having a gun would be greatly reduced. Of course in the end it's the same thing if its a gun at your head or a knife at your throat, you're already caught.

Legalised guns just makes it easier for them to point guns at your head.

"What if a security guard was allowed a gun on VT’s campus? Why, he just might have been able to save 32 people’s lives, give or take a few depending on reaction time."

What if Cho couldnt get hold of a gun because they werent legal? Maybe he would have taken a knife instead. If he had used a knife, I doubt that 32 people would have died.

"There’s no reason to make that argument, because it’s statistically unlikely that a college student never plays video games. "

Well, maybe I said it badly, so I reformulate : there is no proof that video games played any role at all. First because what we know about the killer goes far beyond an eventual exposure to violent media. Second because no game is targeted yet. The "Washington Post" had a paragraph in one article that referred to "Counter-Strike", but this paragraph has been removed with no explanation (I learnt it there : http://news.firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=15112 )

Click your heels twice and say "There's no place like home" three times. Hopefully that should get you back to your home dimension where Dr. Phil is just an overpaid talking head, and Rush Limbaugh hates everything that isn't himself or the president.

Actually, considering that this is a gaming site, "Use the Astral Amulet at the point where you originally crossed over" would be a little more appropriate.

What do those three names have in common besides the fact that they’re overpaid talking heads? Well, two of them have placed the blame for the Virginia Tech massacre squarely on videogames while one of them dismissed the idea and it may not be th...

While appearing positive to me at first glance - i mean isn't it nice to hear that someone obviously understands that "xxx made him do it" logic is fatally flawed -though Rush's own logic is completely flawed and the whole angle only used to further his own agenda/opinion about guns. The flaw being some might ask?

Easy, neither videogames nor guns MADE this guy kill all those people.
Unlikely videogames he USED guns though to accomplish the deed. I very much doubt that him entering the building armed with a a few videogames would have caused so many casualties.

Rush Limbaugh standing up for us? Actually, I was more shocked by some of the OTHER callers (read the full transcript). One said this guy was taught to hate America by his "liberal professor." Another kept bringing up Al-Queda in a completely unrelated discussion. What? The? Hell?

However, I think there is one argument he didn't use : there is no proof at all that the killer played video games (not even "violent" ones). There is no proof that violent media played any role at all. And what we already know about his personality (his writings, his lonesome temper, his anger...) goes far, far beyond media violence.

Chuma,
That's pretty much his concern. At least that's what it sounds like.

He knows, at least on some level, that where there is one goomba blaming one thing and demanding regulation and/or restrictions, that something else can be blamed by another person and demand regulation and/or restrictions. As much as he probably wants to blame video games and have them regulated, he obviously knows that guns could be treated in the same manner. And that's something he probably doesn't want to happen.

I have yet to see any mention at all that this guy played video games, let alone that he was addicted to them, or that the games were violent.

In fact according to the BBC - "Neighbour Abdul Shash described Cho as "very quiet, always by himself", and said he spent a lot of time playing basketball and would not respond if someone greeted him.".

@Terminator44 -- I haven't listened to Rush in over a decade, and you have to keep in mind the guy in an entertainer, but he also isn't the fire-breathing demon the left makes him out to be. It's okay to occasionally agree with someone you normally wouldn't on those occasions he makes sense. There have been one or two occasions in the past few years where I've actually agreed with Nancy Pelosi on a couple of things. Imagine the shock!

The more facts that I see coming out about the shooter, the more I'm convinced this guy was seriously messed up in the head. THAT'S why he snapped. Maybe video games helped provide a disconnect (which would be no different than the movie "Taxi Driver" providing inspiration for John Hinckley), but this guy had issues to begin with. Also...we don't know that he was a gamer yet. That's one thing that hasn't come out in all of this.

He didn't use videogames as an excuse to defend guns, he realized that his defence of guns is the same as teh defence of videogames, and that anti-videogame zealots use the same kind of langauge anti-gun zealots do.

Infophile: @Matt: Apparently Dan Aykroyd actually is involved. We don't know how yet, though, but he's apparently going to be in the movie in some way.08/02/2015 - 4:17am

Mattsworkname: I still hold that not having the origonal cast invovled in any way hurts this movie, and unless the 4 actresses in the lead roles can some how measure up to the comic timing of the origonal cast, i just don't see it being a success08/02/2015 - 12:46am

Mattsworkname: Mecha: regardless of what you think of it, GB 2 was a finanical success and for it time did well with audiances ,even if it wasnt as popular as the first08/02/2015 - 12:45am

MechaTama31: I think they're better off trying to do something different, than trying to be exactly the same and having every little difference held up as a shortcoming. Uncanny valley.08/01/2015 - 11:57pm

MechaTama31: Having the original cast didn't do much for... that pink-slimed atrocity which we must never speak of.08/01/2015 - 11:56pm

Mattsworkname: Andrew: If the new ghostbusters bombs, I cant help but feel it'll be cause it removed the origonal cast and changed the formula to much08/01/2015 - 8:31pm

Andrew Eisen: Not the best look but that appears to be a PKE meter hanging from McCarthy's belt.08/01/2015 - 7:34pm

Mattsworkname: You know what game is a lot of fun? rocket league. It' s a soccer game thats actually fun to play cause your A Freaking CAR!08/01/2015 - 7:02pm

Mattsworkname: Nomad colossus did a little video about it, showing the world and what can be explored in it's current form. It's worth a look, and he uses text for commentary as not to break the immerison08/01/2015 - 5:49pm

Mattsworkname: I feel some more mobility would have made it more interesting and I feel that a larger more diverse landscape with better graphiscs would help, but as a concept, it interests me08/01/2015 - 5:48pm

Andrew Eisen: Huh. I guess I'll have to check out a Let's Play to get a sense of the game.08/01/2015 - 5:47pm

Mattsworkname: It did, I found the idea of exploring a world at it's end, exploring the abandoned city of a disappeared alien race and the planets various knooks and crannies intriqued me.08/01/2015 - 5:46pm

Andrew Eisen: Did it appeal to you? If so, what did you find appealing?08/01/2015 - 5:43pm

Mattsworkname: Its an interesting concept, but it's not gonna appeal to everyone thats for sure,08/01/2015 - 5:40pm

Andrew Eisen: That sounds horrifically boring. Doesn't sound like an interesting use of its time dilation premise either. 08/01/2015 - 5:36pm